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THE JEWEL FROM PARADISE 267<br />

humble, and he watched himself diligently' lest he<br />

should hide the knowledge of God Almighty, and<br />

his prayers ascended to Him like sweet incense,<br />

and he was like one of the Prophets in his day,<br />

and he was captain over thirty thousand horsemen,<br />

and to him the Two-horned cried, saying, "March<br />

"thou before me by the [p. 154] blessing and help<br />

"of God Almighty;" and he took some of the<br />

ten thousand men and did as the Two-horned<br />

had commanded him. And it came to pass that<br />

when he was ready to go he spake unto the Two-<br />

horned,^ saying, "O king, behold thou hast com-<br />

"manded me to march intothis [place of] darkness,<br />

"which none of us have ever seen before, and we<br />

"know not if our beasts will ever win through it,<br />

"what shall I do if I stray from my friends and<br />

"lose my way?" The king said^ unto him, "Take<br />

"with thee this stone, and if thou strayest or<br />

"losest thy path, cast this down before thee, and The king<br />

"if shall give light on the path of each of thy^^^e.*"""<br />

"men." Now this stone is one of the jewels which<br />

our father Adam brought from Paradise when he<br />

came forth therefrom. So Matun, that is to say<br />

El-Khidr, took the stone and went forward on<br />

his journey; and when he had departed from that<br />

place the Two-horned encamped.<br />

' Read (D^i-I'/ •-<br />

' Read f.tt,lf '<br />

3 Read fflJ&A-n, Read ^'ttCti<br />

5 In an Arabic history (Lidzbarski, op. cit.) an angel gives<br />

a stone like an egg to <strong>Alexander</strong> it~^a^\ Ji:^! i^p.r>- i\\&\k<br />

LL2<br />

"*

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